Flick Review < Detour (1945) / Edgar G. Ulmer
Al Roberts: How far you goin’?
Vera: How far YOU goin’?
Al Roberts: [as narrator] That took me by surprise, and I turned around to look at her. She was facing
straight ahead, so I couldn’t see her eyes. She was young – not more than 24. Man, she looked like
she had been thrown off the crummiest freight train in the world! Yet in spite of that, I got the
impression of beauty, not the beauty of a movie actress, mind you, or the beauty you dream
about with your wife, but a natural beauty, a beauty that’s almost homely, because it’s so real.
And suddenly she turned to face me…
Vera: How far did ya say you were goin’?
Al Roberts: [as narrator] Until then I had done things my way, but from then on something
stepped in and shunted me off to a different destination than the one I’d picked for myself.
Al Roberts: Ever done any hitchhiking? It’s not much fun, believe me. Oh yeah, I know all about
how it’s an education, and how you get to meet a lot of people, and all that. But me, from now on
I’ll take my education in college, or in PS-62, or I’ll send $1.98 in stamps for ten easy lessons.
Al Roberts: That’s life. Whichever way you turn, Fate sticks out a foot to trip you.
Al Roberts: [as narrator] As I drove off, it was still raining and the drops streaked down the windshield like tears.
Al Roberts: Money. You know what that is, the stuff you never have enough of. Little green
things with George Washington’s picture that men slave for, commit crimes for, die for. It’s
the stuff that has caused more trouble in the world than anything else we ever invented,
simply because there’s too little of it.
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To save on production costs, Leo Erdody, the film’s composer, was recorded and filmed playing
two classical piano pieces, Frédéric Chopin’s “Waltz No. 7 in C# minor” and Johannes
Brahms’ “Waltz Op. 39 no. 15 in Ab Major” as a favor for director Edgar G. Ulmer.
Al Roberts (Tom Neal) “performs” the piano pieces during scenes set in the “Break of Dawn“
nightclub. Erdödy’s hands, in close-up, can be seen playing during the Brahms.
.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F* "Flick Review < Detour (1945) / Edgar G. Ulmer 10 Flick Review < Detour (1945) / Edgar G. Ulmer")
I Can’t Believe That You’re in Love with Me
Detour (1945)
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
Writers: Martin Goldsmith (screenplay), Martin Goldsmith (original story)
Cinematography: Benjamin H. Kline
Cinematography: Benjamin H. Kline
Stars: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake
